The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-04-21
. GREAT SPEECH.


with my hearty concurrence lap
plausel, and if tile voice with which
express my assent finds a response il
both hemispheTeS it is because tina
voice addresses to the conscience of tn
human race and to the consciousness
of humanity itself. LApplausel. | an
here tonight. fellow-citiZenS. not as ;
politician, not as an official of the gov
eminent of the United States, by which
title have been introduced to you bl
your President, but as an American
citizen To express my belief that the
cause OF Ireland is the cause of Kansas
(Applnise.l One hundred Thousand
citizens o. Irish birth and descent have
cast their fortunes with MS and assisted
TO build up our great fabric of ciYiliZa
tion, rich in every element Of present
prosperity, but farTicher in every pToph.
eey Of coming greatness and renoWn
tApplause.l The Irish cause Is more
than the cause Of Kansas. il is the
cause Of America. Millions of Irish
citizens have contributed of their mus
Gle and brain from the very foundation
of this government to its success and
prosperity. Applause More than
One-half Of the soldiers in the Conti-
mental army that Wrestell from Great
Britain the independence Of these colo
MES We're of Irish nativity and descent.
Applause And during the long in
terval that has elapsed Irishmen in
America have contributed of their
scanty and pitiful earnings for the
support ofthose who had been reduced
10 poverty ia that land from which
they themselves had fed, more than
two hundred millions Of dollars.
~ think, Mr.. President, that the cause
of Ireland thus in a wide economic
sense Is the cause of America. Nor
should Americans ever forget what has
been enunicared i'm your resolution,
that in the last great struggle for lib
erty upon the American continent. up-
OH every battle field from Bull Run to
AppOmatOX there was not a contest
that was not illustrated by irish hero
ism and valor and consecrated by Irish
blood. lApplause.l
But. sir, in another and far wider
sense the cause of Ireland is not alone
the cause OF Kansas or the cause of
America. ii transcends the boundaries
OF nations, II suTpaSses the confines of
the seas and becomes the cause of
humanity itself Applause IL is.
sir, the cause Of the past, it is the cause
OF Leonidas at Thermopyle: it is the
cause of Tell and Winklreid; it is the
cause of Bruce Of Bannockh1rn. of
Hampden and Pym; it is the cause of
Garabaldi and of old John Brown Of
Osawatomie. applause. 10 is. sir.
that cause which has inspired the
patriots of every age, the heroes of
every race, the martyrs OF every Telig-
ion. And so it is. sir, that tonight
conceive it to be a proud honor and
appear here in this historic city
of tins illustrious common
wealth that has itself made incredible
sacrifices for liberty. amid a people that
have passed through temptations to
yield their principles and have met |
all trials with an unimpaired constancy |
and courage; among Il citizenship that |
has never failed to respond to the de |
mand for succor or help from whatever |
quarter 1t might come; ] say, sir. that |
feel it to be a proud tribute a proud |
honor and proud distinction TO appear |
here TO speak i'm behalf of the strug-
Cling millions Of Ireland in that tire
mendous conflict that they are waging |
against caste and prcrOgatiYe and tyr
amy lApplausel under the heroic lead |
of Panell I Applausel and under the |
heroic lead of those English allies, and |
under Gladstone fApplauscl the grand |
est brain and will upon this planet |
lApplaus. IN the cause of home rule |
and local sclf-gOvCrnment for ireland |
and the Irish. lApplausel.
We ask, sir, for Ireland and the Irish |
what we ask for ourselves; we ask for |
them what we acknowledge here in |
Kansas. no more, no less, Applause = |
the right to govern ourselves, to man |
age their own affairs i'm their own way !
subject TO the allegiance they owe TO |
the British Empire.
Mr.. President, the experiment that |
Great Britain * trying to make with |
Ireland is neither novelty nor an in |
novation. II is the climax and culmi- |
nation of seven hundred years of I'M |
broken and continuous oppression and !
tyranny, and rs an American citizen !
think that is long enough to try the ex-
pertinent, Iapplausel for with all the
power at their disposal, if after seven
hundred years. Great Britain bv force
ana violence and coercion and tyranny
has failed TO accomplish the final des-
tructi0n and overthrow Of the Irish
people, IL is time TO try some other eX-
pertinent. lApplause.l If after q pc
Rod that covers the life time of twenty
generations OF men, Great Britain has
failed in this bloody and brutal expert
ment, 1t is time for her to understand
that she continues longer upon this line
in opposition To the moral sense and the
conscience and the convictions Of lib
erty loving men everywhere upon the
face Of this earth. Applause. / say
to YOU. fellow citizens. without the ap-
prehension Of successful denial under
oath from any respectable quarter, that
the policy that has been pursued to-
long period that ! have described. is Il
record of crime, of tyranny. Of oppres-
sion beside which all the annals of
blood and Tapine that have been written
upon the pages of the worlds history
are virgin Innocence. TApplausel
Take down the map of the world, Mr..
President, if You please, and turn to
that little spot which is designated
thereon as the Emerald Isle: how large
n space il has covered in the worlds.
sympathy. how vast u place it has GOV
cred I'm the world 5 history how deeply
affection for it is imbedded IN tho I'M
dying love of home and the unalterable
love of country that has always ami
mated its inhabitantsl A minute and
almost infinitesImal speck upon the
surface of the earth: would YOU believe
il, sir, that the area of Ireland COM
prises hut little more than one-half of
the space allotted upon the map to
the State of Kansas. Draw a line
through the meridian of Larned and 90
eastward to the Missouri River and
you have a vastly greater territory than
that which has been known in history
for more than 4 thousand years as Ire
land; land sacred in song; a land sur
rounded by hOSpitable seas. whose ex-
halatiOnS nOuriSh verduTe that decks
it with perennial beauty, be-
meath whose fertile soil mines of ores
and minerals wait for the hand of
the miner, whose rivers flowing through
the interior plateau from their noun
tain sources, Attending abundant power
for manufactures and Industries, and
whose coasts indented with estuaries
and bays and harbors might shelter an
Astounding commerce. For more than
two centuries. while Great Britain was
sunken in degradation and barbarism
and ignorance, the scholarship, the
learning and religion of Western
Europe was confined to that little island
of Ireland. [Applausel. And her mis-
sionaries, her teachers and her apostles
bore religion and education into the re-
motest parts of the earth. Inhabited.
sir, by people industrious, frugal, in
ured TO toll, enthusiastic, jealous. true
TO their friends and devoted with an
unalterable love to their home and theil
country, this people during this Ions
period of time have been TN,
objects of the most atrocio,Is